With the increasing popularity of pickup trucks, there is an ever increasing demand for rear window louvers. There are perceived by many as making the pickup have a more sporty look. Such units generally mount across the rear window, giving somewhat the appearance of an exterior window shade. Generally, such units are made of pre-formed, molded plastic and are mounted on the exterior window of the pickup. They provide privacy, protection from the sun and at the same time also allow rear vision.
While such rear window units are popular, at the same time they are extremely labor intensive in manufacture. This is because the units are typically made by injection molding followed by manual cutting out of the segments between the louvers. These cuts must individually be made, and in typical prior art louvers are made on an angle. This is a highly labor intensive project. Often it takes to as many as six minutes to use a router or other cutout tool for each individual rear window louver unit. The result is extreme expense in preparing a highly labor intensive automotive accessory.
Additionally, another problem with prior art rear window louvers is that with the increasing popularity of slider windows mounted in the rear window framework of the pickup truck, a rear window louver unit cannot be used. Put another way, the rear window louver unit prohibits accessibility to the slider window. Thus, the truck user must make a choice between either the rear window louver unit or the slider window.
A primary objective of the present invention is to prepare a rear window louver unit which is universally adaptable, and which is not labor intensive in preparation, in that louver cutouts can be made in just a few seconds, rather than minutes.
A further objective of the present invention is to prepare a rear window louver unit having the above mentioned advantages and as well which also has a removable center section to allow access to channeled slider windows.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a universal use rear window louvered unit having a removable midsection which can be used for pickup trucks having a solid glass window, without removal of the midsection, and which can alternatively be used for pickup trucks having a channeled slider window by simply removing the midsection.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a process for preparing universal rear window louvered units, which is not labor intensive.
A still further objective of the present invention is to provide a universal rear window louvered unit which has attachment means which allow easy attachment to rear pickup truck windows, regardless of how the window itself is attached to the pickup, i.e. both for standard window attachments and gasketless rear windows.
The method and means for accomplishing each of the above objectives as well as others will become apparent from the detailed description given below.